Ricardo Villalobos

Dependent and Happy - Excellent, Based on 3 Critics

Pitchfork - 82Based on rating 8.2/10

82

Inside the world of contemporary techno, Ricardo Villalobos is a guru: Fans worship him, skeptics think he's a crackpot, and he doesn't seem to care much either way. Parts of his discography read like Spinal Tap for dance music: In 2006 he released a track that looped Serbian brass bands for about 37 minutes, and a year later, he made a mix for the London club Fabric consisting entirely of new Ricardo Villalobos productions, which is like giving a toast at someone's else's wedding about your own marriage. Halfway through the mix, a woman starts angrily delivering her opinions on how to deal with chicken giblets.

Dependent and Happy sounds like the hungriest dance music that Ricardo Villalobos has recorded in some time. Or maybe more accurately, the least arcane. Then again, it's just possible that he has a better editor this time out. Questions. They pile up when talking about Villalobos, which is one of ….

Rap and rock releases are the province of the young, while a DJ of advanced age can acquire cultural cache as long as the drums are slamming and they're still standing. Ricardo Villalobos's Dependent & Happy is an album full off good beats, but the experiments with layers, loops, bloops and tempos see him drift into Flying Villalotus territory. Dependent & Happy flows with the smoothness of an expert DJ set, yet it's so modest that it sounds like a record best suited to get a fancy haircut to.